Adam Hamawy, a New Jersey plastic surgeon running in the Democratic primary for the state's 12th Congressional District, took the stand as a defense witness at the federal terrorism trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Egyptian cleric known as the "Blind Sheikh", and acknowledged under oath that the cleric "always talked about jihad," the Washington Free Beacon reported after reviewing dozens of pages of court testimony.
Hamawy was a 26-year-old medical student when Abdel-Rahman's defense lawyers put him on the stand. The court records paint a picture not of a casual acquaintance but of a yearslong relationship: Hamawy met the cleric in 1991, followed him to speaking events at mosques, visited him in his home, provided translation help, and rode with him on a 13-hour car trip to a conference in Detroit.
Abdel-Rahman was ultimately convicted of seditious conspiracy, solicitation to murder then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, conspiracy to murder Mubarak, solicitation to attack a U.S. military installation, and conspiracy to conduct bombings. Prosecutors accused him of leading a conspiracy to "levy a war of urban terrorism against the United States." He was sentenced to life in prison. And the man who testified on his behalf now wants a seat in Congress.
The Free Beacon's review of testimony shows that Hamawy first encountered Abdel-Rahman in 1991, when the cleric delivered a lecture at Matawan-Aberdeen Middle School in Cliffwood, New Jersey. From there, Hamawy's involvement deepened. He attended events where Abdel-Rahman spoke at mosques, visited the cleric at home, and helped translate for him.
One episode stands out. Hamawy described a 13-hour car journey from New Jersey to Detroit for a conference called "Towards a Global Islamic Economy." He shared a hotel room with Abdel-Rahman at the event. Also in the car was Emad Salem, an FBI informant who would become a central prosecution witness and help put the cleric behind bars.
The Detroit conference featured speakers whose own records raise serious questions. Ahmad Nofal, who spoke after Abdel-Rahman, was described in a 1995 PBS documentary called Jihad in America as "a known recruiter of Hamas terrorists." Hamawy said he heard Nofal speak on further occasions after the conference. Hassan al-Turabi, who appeared via video, later told the Associated Press in 1997 that "America incarnates the devil for Muslims" and added, "When I say Muslims, I mean all the Muslims in the world."
These were the circles in which Hamawy moved as a young man. He has not responded to the Free Beacon's request for comment.
Under cross-examination by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who would later become famous for the Scooter Libby investigation, Hamawy made a series of concessions that, by the lead prosecutor's own assessment, ended up helping the government's case more than the defense.
When Fitzgerald asked whether Abdel-Rahman spoke at the Detroit conference "about conquering the land of the infidels," Hamawy replied: "He might have, yes." When pressed on whether the cleric spoke "about how Muslims had to do jihad against the enemies of Islam," Hamawy acknowledged hearing the word "jihad" more than once.
His most direct admission came when he was asked whether Abdel-Rahman talked about jihad:
"Of course. That's what [Abdel-Rahman] always talked about. He talked about jihad, you know?"
Hamawy did deny one specific allegation. He said he did not hear Abdel-Rahman tell Salem to turn his "rifle's barrel to President Mubarak's chest, and kill him", language that appeared in court documents. But the denial did not carry the day.
Andrew McCarthy, the former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York who led the prosecution, told the Free Beacon that Hamawy's testimony backfired on the defense:
"As was uniformly the case with witnesses presented in the extensive defense case, his testimony, once cross-examination was over, did more to bolster the prosecution's proof of a jihadist terrorism conspiracy against the United States than to help the accused."
McCarthy added that the evidence against Abdel-Rahman was overwhelming. The jury credited Salem's account of the Detroit trip. And the proof that the cleric called for the killing of Mubarak rested on far more than one informant's word.
"His lawyers were reduced to arguing, in essence, that Mubarak had it coming. Not surprisingly, that's not how the jury saw it."
Abdel-Rahman was no mere firebrand preacher. His followers carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His acolytes killed Meir Kahane, the Jewish Defense League founder, in 1990. The Salam Mosque in Jersey City, where Abdel-Rahman preached and where Hamawy followed him, was described in court records as a "jihad office", the same location where conspirators behind the World Trade Center bombing would meet.
The broader conspiracy Abdel-Rahman led included plots against six targets. Conspirators spoke of their desire to assassinate then-Senator Al D'Amato of New York. Abdel-Rahman's followers were also linked to the 1997 Luxor massacre in Egypt, which killed 62 people, most of them tourists, and to a 1989 bus attack in Tel Aviv that killed 16, including one U.S. citizen and two Canadians.
This is the man for whom Adam Hamawy served as a character witness. This is the trial where Hamawy told a federal jury that the defendant "always talked about jihad", and apparently expected that to help.
Hamawy is one of 13 candidates in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. He leads the money race with more than $540,000 in donations, compared with roughly $400,000 for his closest competitor. The district includes the population hub of Middlesex County, though it does not include Paterson, the New Jersey city with the largest Muslim population.
His endorsements and financial backing tell their own story. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has endorsed him. The political arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations endorsed him in March. CAIR's leader, Nihad Awad, said he was "happy to see" the October 7 attacks. Hamawy has also received backing from American Priorities, a group largely funded by donors to the mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani, a New York Democratic candidate, and from Track AIPAC, which accuses pro-Israel politicians in the United States of being "foreign agents."
The pattern of associations is worth noting. Democratic candidates across the country have faced growing scrutiny over donor networks tied to scandal and alleged criminal conduct, and voters have a right to ask whether the money flowing into a campaign reflects the values of the people it claims to represent.
The Free Beacon also reported last week that Hamawy spent weeks in Gaza working at a hospital. The outlet noted that Mohammed Sinwar, described as a mastermind of the October 7 attacks, was killed in a tunnel underneath that hospital's emergency room.
American Muslims for Democracy says there are more than 320,000 Muslims in New Jersey, about 3.5 percent of the state's population, placing the state third nationally after New York and Illinois. Muslim voters are a real constituency in the 12th District. But the question for those voters, and all voters, is not whether a Muslim candidate should run for Congress. Of course one should, if qualified. The question is whether this particular candidate's record deserves a pass.
Front Page Magazine first reported on the connection between Hamawy and Abdel-Rahman. The New York Times covered Hamawy's participation in the trial at the time it happened. None of this is hidden history. Yet Hamawy has offered no public explanation.
He has not explained why he maintained a yearslong relationship with a man who was plotting mass violence against Americans. He has not explained why he traveled 13 hours in a car with the cleric and an FBI informant to attend a conference featuring speakers who called America the devil and recruited for Hamas. He has not explained why he took the stand to defend a man later convicted of seditious conspiracy.
When donors and allies have broken with other Democratic figures over far less serious revelations, silence from a candidate sitting on this kind of record is not a strategy. It is an evasion.
McCarthy's assessment of Hamawy's testimony is damning in its restraint. The defense witness did more to prove the government's case than to help the accused. The jury convicted on every count. Abdel-Rahman died in federal prison.
And yet the man who told a federal courtroom that the Blind Sheikh "always talked about jihad" now asks New Jersey voters to send him to Washington. The growing pattern of Democratic campaigns entangled in troubling associations makes the silence from party leadership all the more conspicuous.
Hamawy's campaign has raised the most money in the race. He has endorsements from CAIR and from a sitting member of Congress. He has the institutional wind at his back. What he does not have, and what no amount of fundraising can buy, is an answer for why he stood up in a federal courtroom to vouch for a man convicted of waging a terror war against the United States.
Past conduct in service of figures who drew the attention of federal law enforcement is not something voters should be asked to overlook. The 12th District deserves a representative whose record can survive a simple question: Whose side were you on?
Voters in New Jersey's 12th District have thirteen names on the ballot. At least one of them owes them an explanation before he earns a single vote.
